Memorial Day in California

 

Dan and I decided to go visit my family in Northern California over the long Memorial Day weekend. We left Wednesday after work and drove to Reno where we stayed the night. Then we drove the rest of the way on Thursday. We came home Monday morning so it was a pretty quick trip but a lot of fun.

Shock of a lifetime, I didn’t even fall asleep at all on the way there! I still can’t believe it. We had a lot of fun singing and talking and eating. We used priceline to bid on a hotel in Reno and got it for $40! We still had to pay priceline and hotel fees which totaled $24 but it was still a great deal for a really nice hotel. I was really impressed with the hotel and it was nice to not have to drive the entire way that night.

The main lady we wanted to visit was my Grams. My grandpa passed away last year and she has moved into an assisted living center near my aunt and uncle. It was so fun to see her and just visit with her a lot. She is so cute in her new place and everyone just loves her. It is so nice and it really makes me happy to see that she is in such a nice place where she can have her own little apartment and have some independence, but we don’t have to worry about her getting hurt or taking her medicine. And she gets gourmet food cooked for her every day! Not too shabby…

Of course I had a ton of fun with the kiddos. My cousin Seth has a new baby Emma and I adore her. She is the tiniest thing since she was preemie and now that she is 3 months, she is only the size of a regular newborn! She was kind of fussy but I got her to sleep twice! Score. I was the baby whisperer and got Rachel (below) to like me too! I think giving her food and helping her walk everywhere helped!

Dan was a hit with Reilly too! This kid is hilarious and never stops going. He is obsessed with baseball and would honestly play for hours if someone would play with him. Dan played a lot with him so he was constantly begging Dan to play. It was so cute to watch them and Reilly is amazing at throwing and catching especially being only 4 years old!

Basically all we did the whole weekend was eat and visit. Not too bad if you ask me. Unfortunately I gained a few pounds to prove it! My aunt and uncle have a beautiful home and they are the best hosts. It is so nice to stay at their house and they make the most amazing dinners every night!

Me and Jacob. He is such a smarty pants and so big!

The weather was awesome (70s) and we sat outside almost every night and ate dinner and enjoyed the weather.

Helping “ya ya” (that is what the grandkids call my aunt) and “grandma weezy” (great-grandma Eloise) make frosting for the cupcakes.

More family dinners and yummy food. Of course soda was involved….it’s my family after all and these people are soda addicts!

We honestly felt like we were back with Dan’s family since there were so many people and kids everywhere, it was so much fun!

Danny and Seth somehow ended up at the table with all the blocks and toys meant for the kids. They made some pretty good designs though!

Cutest kids ever. Rachel and Marshall playing.

Kallie with Marshal (her son) and baby Emma (her niece).

We had a ton of fun spending time with my family in California. We don’t get to see them very often so it was really important for us to get out there when we could. I loved hanging out and just visiting them and getting to see my cousins’ kids. Dan and I had a blast driving and chatting on our road trip and hopefully we can go back soon!

Garden and nasty stache

Dan had a big beard a few weeks ago and he kept it for about a month. I don’t mind the bearded look and I think he looks pretty hot, but I don’t like kissing him at all! And his mom hates it! But he finally shaved and decided to leave the nastiest mustache ever. He kept it for a day and everyone at his work said he looked like a porn star. Sickkkkkk.

An update on our yard. These were about 2 weeks ago and we added some more plants to fill in our backyard flower beds a bit more. You can barely tell, but there are a bunch of Petunias (where it looks like just dirt) so hopefully they fill in and bring some color.

These are all newly planted and already have grown quite a bit. They are looking good and supposedly will get pretty big.

The front gardens are looking good but I definitely need some color! I planted some petunias up here too so hopefully they will be colorful soon now that my tulips have died.

This is my garden about two weeks ago.

The pepper and tomato plants were just newly planted.

This is my garden as of last night and it looks awesome! So many things have just exploded and I’m so excited!

My tomatoes and pepper plant have grown a lot and the zucchini seed I planted a week or two ago has already popped up! I was amazed!

This is a close up of my spinch (middle two squares) and my beans (top four squares). My onions are huge and my cilantro and parsley are popping up like crazy. My peas are also growing really well so hopefully they turn out!

I am going to try to work out a trellis for my tomatoes and my zucchini so they don’t get out of control and take over my small garden. Hopefully it actually works and I’ll post pictures of that eventually. Hooray for gardens!

The Great Debate

 

This is going to be harsh. Just warning you. I’m about to get all political and controversial up in here. But it’s my blog and this is something that has been bothering me for a while now and I want to share my opinion. I realize I may offend some people or infuriate people but I’ve been offended and infuriated myself about it so whatev.

Anyway….gay marriage. Yikes. A hot topic for sure, especially these days.

Here is what I believe in a nutshell: Marriage is between a man and a woman. Period. Acting on homosexual feelings is wrong (as is acting on heterosexual feelings before marriage).

I have an unwavering testimony of the gospel and I 100% support my church and their stance on this topic. I do not pick and choose the things about my religion that I want to support. I believe it’s all or nothing. Obviously I have a lot of faults and things to work on, but I fully support my church and every single thing that my leaders (speaking on behalf of God) stand for. This is not to assume that all leaders are perfect and I realize that there are many in the church who make mistakes. That is not what I’m talking about here. You cannot be a faithful member of this church and choose which parts you like and which parts you don’t. It doesn’t work that way. We are a church that requires commitment and dedication and we believe that the Lord will bless us immensely for following Him and dedicating ourselves to His work.

Now here is the kicker: I think that members of the church who do not support the church’s stance on gay marriage should not be able to hold a temple recommend. During the recommend interview, we are explicitly asked if we support and sustain the leaders of our church. Luckily it is not my decision to make that judgment and the church leaders and the Lord will make the ultimate decision, not me. But the fact that people are actively going against the church is preposterous and outrageous and it breaks my heart. It shocks me to my core that these same people continue to go to church, bear their testimony, etc., but then they publicly support gay marriage and blatantly state that the church is wrong! That is total and complete hypocrisy.

My very dearest and best friend throughout my entire childhood is gay. He was basically family and we spent every waking moment together. We had so much fun growing up and we stayed close throughout high school as well. I never doubted that something was different about him. I always knew he was different but didn’t understand how until later in high school. I was absolutely not surprised when he told me he was gay. He was still the same sweetheart boy that I knew and grew up with. He wasn’t any different than he had always been and he is still a wonderful person that I love being around. I still see him whenever I can and although he knows exactly where I stand, he also knows that I love him and care about him.

Many gay people that I have met and interacted with are great and some are so flamboyant and hysterical and I absolutely love it. I still disagree with their lifestyle but I have nothing against them and enjoying their company. It’s no different than being friends with people who drink, sleep around or don’t believe in God. I can still enjoy their company and respect our differences. I love that people are different and we can all learn from each other. I don’t want to live a life where everyone is exactly like me because how boring is that? And how would I really appreciate the things that I believe are important? They would be meaningless if everyone agreed with me right? So I appreciate the differences in the world and it’s something I have always wanted to experience.

When I lived in Holland, I became much more open to a lot of things. I was forced to question things that I had never questioned before-why don’t I drink or have sex or do drugs? Why do I go to church every week and read my scriptures? What do I think about abortion and homosexuality? Why do I think that? Holland is an extremely open minded place. The Netherlands (aka Holland) was the first country in the world to legalize gay marriage. They have also legalized prostitution and soft drugs (like marijuana). It all sounds so awful and crazy but that place was amazing. It was beautiful and the people were wonderful and kind and welcoming to everyone. I loved my time there and it is something I will forever hold dear. I talked to people who had drastically different ideas and beliefs than me and we shared our opinions over coffee (hot chocolate for me) almost every day! That experience changed me for the better but also cemented in me the truths and values that I have. I don’t think I would feel as strongly as I do if I hadn’t spent time living in the Netherlands and traveling around Europe.

I hope that in writing this, people will have no doubt where I stand and what I believe. I also hope they know that even if I disagree with them on this, I don’t hate or dislike them. Not at all! I definitely have lost a lot of respect for the “faithful” members of the church who are blatantly and purposefully going against what the church teaches. With that said, I am not going to treat people differently just because I feel that way. If you know me at all, you know I love a good discussion and I don’t get upset or offended easily, but I also don’t back down and don’t hesitate to say exactly what I think. I just wish the rest of the country could agree to disagree instead of attacking and harassing the other side. It is unfortunate that it is happening. And as a side note, I don't understand how this managed to be at the forefront of the political scene. What about the state of the economy? Our disgusting national debt? The fact that Congress has not passed a budget since 2009? What about the housing and job markets? And gay marriage has managed to be the only thing people are talking about. Tragic.

But I feel a lot better getting that off my chest. I feel like the other side of the debate gets so much publicity and they make those of us who disagree with them out to be hateful and backwards. It doesn’t make sense to me how they cannot understand that I feel just as strongly as they do about this issue. We simply disagree and that will not change. I am not trying to hurt anyone or cause pain, but my feelings will never change. I believe God has spoken on this issue and I have no questions or doubts in my mind about it. Now I can rest easy knowing that at least those who read this know exactly where I stand.

Mish mosh post

Well my little sissy got hitched a few weeks ago. The ceremony was amazing and I loved that we could be part of it. Being in the temple was amazing and the Spirit was so strong and I am just so happy that she made such a wonderful choice and I know she will be blessed because of it.

I literally got these pictures off facebook and I don’t have any yet but it was great. Except for the minor downpour the entire day…ha but really, it absolutely poured rain and we all got completely drenched. Luckily it was Steph and she is really chill and just had fun. We saw another bride who was PISSSED. Dan and I were dying because we were sure her husband was trying to figure out how to un-do the marriage! Yikes. But things turned out great and the reception was incredible and she looked gorgeous.

I’m so glad Steph found Andrew and so glad to have another boy in the family (Dan loves staring into space while Steph, me and mom talk our faces off). They are so in love and I just pray she has as much joy in her marriage as I do because it’s a wonderful thing to be blessed with! Love them both.

Last weekend when it was super warm, Dan and I decided to do a little hike in the morning at Antelope Island. It’s literally about 10 minutes away from our house (we have lakefront property, don’t be jealous), so we jetted over there on Saturday morning. We knew there would be bugs and lathered up the bug spray, but we underestimated the biting gnats.

I started to get concerned when we stopped at the visitor’s center and saw other people come in with small black bugs covering their backs. I was a little horrified. We didn’t noticed bugs while walking to our car, but we decided to drive around for a bit before doing our hike. We stopped at a place that had a tall overlook about half a mile up a hill. Just a small walk up the hill, right? Well, only a few steps later, we noticed the swarms of bugs trying to kill us. They didn’t bite but there were tiny gnats everywhere. We were swiping at them and speed-walked up the hill. We stopped for about 10 seconds to take the picture above then turned around. They were everywhere and it was like a horror movie. We started to run and ended up jogging back down the path (at least we got a little exercise right?). Suddenly I noticed a HUGE snake in the middle of the trail and I almost fell over because I stopped so fast. I was gasping because I was so freaked out and probably inhaled half a pound of gnats. The snake was easily a few feet long and at first I thought it was a rattlesnake, but it didn’t appear to be. Still freaky and that would be the third time since we’ve been married that I have been inches away from stepping on a snake while on a hike/run/etc (the other two were rattlesnakes!).

I literally felt like that must be similar to what hell feels like except maybe hotter and you just can’t stop running; you have to run forever and there are bugs and huge snakes everywhere.
Luckily things were much better inside the car. We drove around the island and it really was beautiful. We will try to come back in the late fall when it’s still warm enough for a hike, but cold enough that the bugs are dead!

We bought a grill a few weeks ago (can’t believe we have gone so long without it!) and we LOVE it! We have been grilling up a storm and I have made pizza on the grill a few times too. It has always turned out well but we made some last week for the Jazz vs Suns game and it was just life changing.

Honestly, it turned out amazing and just perfect! I made the dough from scratch (not that hard at all) and then we did alfredo sauce, asian bbq chicken (marinated overnight), mozzarella, red onions, mushrooms and cilantro. Whoa. It was awesome! So so good. The exact recipe I used is here. Go make it now.

Here is a little update on my garden. So far, I have planted: red onions, white onions, green onions, parsley, peas, cilantro, carrots, and spinach. I still plan on planting: tomatoes, peppers, basil, lettuce, cucumber, beans, garlic, celery and zucchini. You can see my onions on the top right and they have grown a ton. They are looking good and there are a few others things popping up slowly. I have no clue what I’m doing so hopefully things go well!

I’m also really happy with our yard is looking and excited for more plans for the spring and fall. This is the side of the house and I still want to fill in more but the small hosta plants will also grow a lot and it’s looking really good.

This is the front of the house a week or so ago and it already looks even better now. I planted a ton of tulips in the fall and they all popped up and I’m loving them! I plan on adding a bunch more tulips, daffodils and lillies this fall to look forward to in the spring!

Our backyard flower gardens are still pretty bare so we are going to focus a lot on those and slowly keep filling things in. am excited to see how things come together and how much better it looks when all the plants grow a lot bigger (they are barely coming in right now). There is still a lot of work to do, but I’m really loving it so far!
When we moved in, the yard was a disaster and I really thought we would have to tear out the grass and start over. But we a lot of hard work (mostly by Dan), it has come back and now looks awesome. Our grass is thick and green and last week we ate dinner with Jon and Julie and the boys on the grass! That is something we never thought we could do and to have nice grass is such an awesome thing!

Gardening and a new project!

Last fall I decided I wanted to plant a garden and because I’m a crazy person, I kind of became obsessed with it. I tend to focus on something and get a little obsessed with it for a while, and then I either move on to something new, or stay interested but not as obsessive after a while. Food storage is a good example of this. At first, I was really obsessive and focused on it, but now I have scaled back and I’m still very interested and continuing to focus on food storage and emergency preparedness, just not obsessively!

Anyway, I decided to do square foot gardening and I read the book about it by Mel Bartholomew. It was really interesting and I got really excited. I learned a lot and planned a lot in the fall/winter and I was ready to go when spring came! Our backyard neighbors (we don’t have a fence behind us yet) have a bunch of raised square foot beds and they do great so I asked them a lot of questions too. I used the site My Square Foot Garden a TON and it is an amazing resource. I basically read every single article on the site! I wrote my garden plan and even posted it on her site for a guest review and got some feedback which was helpful.

We decided to start small and see how things go this year. Dan built me two beds that are 4 feet by 6 feet each. He used 2x12 boards and it was pretty cheap for everything. We stained them and moved them to the yard where Dan had pulled up some grass. We put down a weed mat and then mixed our own “Mel’s Mix” which is 1/3 vermiculite, 1/3 compost and 1/3 peat moss.

I drilled screws in the top of the boards and used string to make my squares. This helps with planting so I can plant certain things in each square. Some squares I will plant several seeds and some squares will have only one. For tomatoes and zucchini, I will cut some of the string to make more space since those plants need more space. We will also be adding some trellis supports for the beans, tomatoes and zucchini so they spread up instead of out. This will save space and hopefully go well!

This year I’m planting the following: peas, beans, onions, carrots, cilantro, parsley, garlic, basil, peppers, tomatoes, zucchini (only 1 plant because they take over!), spinach, lettuce, celery, and cucumbers. I have no idea what I’m doing so it could be a total flop. I have planted a few things that can handle the cool weather and my onions have already started popping up so that is exciting! I will continue to update with some garden posts and hopefully we will have some fresh vegetables to enjoy in a few months!

And my next big project is to start working on an extra bedroom that we haven’t touched since we moved in! It is going to be a future nursery (no I’m not pregnant…) and I figure I might as well get started with paint and some other things since it’s going to be very gender neutral and I just can’t handle the nasty purple and green walls with fairy stickers everywhere! I have a lot of big plans for this room so I’m glad that we can take it slow and hopefully it will look great! The room below is my inspiration picture and I love the colors and everything about the room.

Below is my inspiration board with some ideas that I like. I’m going to do white board and batten on the bottom 2/3 of the wall. Instead of the tan grass cloth wallpaper, I’m going to paint the top part of the walls a pretty blue/green/gray color. There is also an awesome big arched window that I love but I’m not quite sure how to cover it yet. And I’m going to have Dan make me some built in bookshelves and a window seat on either side of the window! I am really excited about that.

    

Dan has already peeled off the horrible fairy stickers and patched and sanded the walls. I have picked out a paint color and I started ripping out the baseboards last night. I’m going to start painting tonight! Hopefully it all turns out as great as I’m hoping and I’m excited to get started!

UPDATE: I found a few pictures of the future nursery in it's current state. Brace yourselves.

Some things

This is going to be kind random because I have several things I wanted to post about and I’m doing it all in one post!

My besty Shelley came to visit from CT a few weeks ago with her precious boys and I was so happy to see Wes! Holy smokes, look at that face! He is so adorable and I loved seeing them. Shell and Bre came to our house with their 4 kids and we had a great time. I’m stealing some pictures from Shelley’s blog!

Brielle and Thad ran around in the yard and played before it got dark and luckily I have invested in a toy box for the times when we have kids come over so they were pretty entertained. It also helped to have their favorite cartoons on TV too! (I love Comcast OnDemand!)

We had a yummy dinner and just chatted. It was so nice to visit with these girls and I just love them so much. We have been friends for so long (since I was in 7th grade!) and I will always love them. I adore their cute kids and seeing them as moms now makes me so happy! They are wonderful moms and I’m so glad we got to spend some time together.

Dan kept them entertained and got them really really hyper. He does that with kids a lot.

Brielle loved wearing my earrings. It was so adorable and Breanne put them over the top of her ears and she walked around really carefully so they would stay on!

Holy Wes.

The picture above is a late Christmas present that I sent Shelley some time in January. I made her some subway art with my silhouette and I forgot to take pictures so she sent me this! I had Brian send me a bunch of their addresses and cities they have lived in (a lot), and I mixed them all up and made a stencil with my silhouette. Then I painted it and distressed it a bit. I think it turned out great and I might make one for us with places we have lived and traveled.

I just have to post a few rants and raves about pinterest. First of all, I love it and think it’s a great idea and I use it all the time!

Here are my rants:

• When people pin things without checking if the link goes anywhere or if it’s a legit site/recipe/etc! They just pin it and never click on it so when I actually do, I find out that it goes nowhere!
• When people pin 10,000 pictures of super freaky buff/skinny women with quotes about working out really hard. Very dramatic.
• “healthy” recipes that are not healthy
• I hate how pinterest randomly doesn’t work and I have had one of my entire boards just disappear. The pictures and links are gone but the board is still there! This has gotten better but I think the site grew too fast for them to maintain very well.

And here are my raves:

• Tons of recipes that I’ve made and liked:
  • honey lime tilapia
  • banana blueberry bread
  • parmesan baked zucchini
  • oven baked asparagus
  • breadsticks
  • asian bbq chicken
  • pf chang’s lettuce wraps
  • sweet potato fries
  • yogurt drops
  • orange teriyaki salmon
  • parmesan roasted potatoes
• Things I’ve actually done :
• New workouts: tabata, running on an incline, the 100, some great arm work outs
• Great cleaning ideas: vinegar (cleaned showerhead), stove top, how to whiten whites (really worked but it’s a lot of effort)
• Actually using the board to plan my Halloween party and upcoming bedroom design
• Guide of how to pluck your eyebrows

And finally, I wanted to do one more update about losing some weight recently. When we went on our trip, I had been tracking my calories and changing my eating habits for about 6 weeks. I was glad I had already started before we left so it was easier to stay on track while we were in Puerto Rico. I was really nervous that I would get home and have gained all the weight back, but I only gained 1.5 pounds and I lost it and a little more the week we got home. I think the fact that we were active while we were there as well as the habits I had been working on before the trip helped a lot too. And we ate pretty healthy while we were there but I did have a lot more treats and desserts than usual and I’m glad that I did!

So far I have lost 18 pounds in about 3 months. I have almost dropped 2 sizes and I’m 2 pounds away from my goal weight but even more importantly, I want to get to my goal pant size! I took some measurements back in December and compared them to now. Here are the inches I have lost so far:

Calf: –.5”
Thigh: –3.25”
Hips: – 2.5”
Waist: –4.75”

I’m really happy with the changes that I’ve made with my lifestyle and eating and I don’t feel deprived at all. I don’t feel like I’m on a diet because I don’t want to just stop doing this and gain weight again. If I gain weight in the future, I will be okay with it and it’s not something I want to obsess over. But I feel really good and healthy and I’m proud that I have done it! It’s something I will continue as a lifestyle change and whenever I get pregnant (yes I do want to have kids at some point!), I want to have a healthy pregnancy and continue exercising regularly, eating healthy and gaining a healthy amount of weight that will hopefully come off easier when I have a baby because I took care of my body!